The Sensuous Gadgeteer
This new work The Sensuous Gadgeteer is one how-to manual that starts at ground level with which tool is which, what it's for and exactly how to use it.
September/October 1973
By the Mother Earth News editors
There you are, on your own place at last ... and your joy turns to a sinking in the stomach when you look hard at the sagging, leaky reality of the buildings you're supposed to "fix up". In the enthusiasm of homestead hunting, maybe you sort of forgot that—while you like the idea of being handy with tools—you've never gotten very far into carpentry (not to mention metalwork or any of the other skills you'll probably need sooner or later).
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Well—even if your saw squeals, your knife slips and your screws somehow always end up going in crooked—don't despair. Relief is in sight, in the form of a book called The Sensuous Gadgeteer, by Bill Abler. This new work is one "how-to" manual that really starts at ground level with which tool is which, what it's for and exactly how to use it. Better still, Bill also tells you just why the device functions as it does ... and that basic grasp of mechanics will do more than any list of "don'ts" to prevent you from mining a good drill or chisel by misuse or careless maintenance.
Useful as it is, the handling of simple tools is just the beginning of the lore you'll discover in The Sensuous Gadgeteer. With Abler as your instructor you may find yourself deep in processes you never dreamed of attempting: sawing and drilling plexiglas, grinding steel rod, sandcasting or any of the innumerable operations Bill explains in plain English.
A "feel" for his material—an understanding of its capabilities and its behavior under all sorts of conditions—is the craftsman's most valuable piece of equipment. It's probably true that this sense can't be taught directly, but Bill Abler (who subtides his book "Bringing Tools and Materials To Life") conveys it more successfully, for a wider variety of substances, than any other writer we've run across.
In short, if you didn't grow up looking over a handyman's shoulder—and how many of us did?— The Sensuous Gadgeteer is about the best substitute around ... as we hope you'll agree when you've sampled the pages that follow.
SPECIAL NOTE: The following section was picked up—page for page—from uncorrected layout sheets for The Sensuous Gadgeteer. Don't be alarmed if you note a typo or two and an odd reference to "the ball in the cage that you drew earlier"... which you know nothing about. The typos are there just to keep you awake and we couldn't very wit have preserved the flavor of the forthcoming book if we'd deleted the reference from the world's only copy of layout sheets for the guide ... now could we?
KNIVES
The knife is the basic tool. Chisels, scissors, planes, saws, even files and sandpaper are knives. Understand the knife and you will understand all these tools. Own a good knife and use it for cutting only, i.e., don't use it for a screwdriver or an awl or a lever. Know how to take care of it. A knife can be either a tool or a weapon; we are concerned here only with tools. When you go out to buy a knife you will encounter a bewildering variety of them in hardware stores and cutlery shops. They all look pretty, so don't be like the little kid who likes the taste of the green gumdrops but eats the red ones because they look pretty. You can get a folding knife (a jackknife) or a fixed-blade knife. Both are good, but the knife with the fixed blade will not fold up by accident and cut you. Your choice. Except for hacking your way through the jungles of the Amazon, or for cutting broad and vegetables, you will seldom need a knife with a blade as long as two inches (written 2"; two feet is written 2'). A fixed-blade knife with a blade that short is hard to buy. I bought one once about 1957, the handle broke about 1965, and I lost the blade before I got around to making a new handle. It is now 1972 and I have looked in hardware stores and catalogs from Maine to California and have never found another fixed-blade knife that small. So I made one for myself out of a car spring and a piece of ebony wood for the handle. The blade is 1 13/16" long. If you are just starting out you won't have tastes as stubborn as that but I don't think you will ever have much use for a knife with a blade any longer than two inches, because when a blade gets too long you can't control it.
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